Thai food is very diverse in its flavors. We have sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, tangy and so many more hard to describe flavors. Sometimes we have all these flavors in one dish and they all work so well together. Tom Yum Goong is sour and spicy and a bit tangy all in one dish. It is a very popular Thai soup and even though it is spicy, it’s very refreshing.
There are 2 types of tom yum goong – one with coconut milk and one without the coconut milk. The one with the coconut milk is a bit thicker and heavier. This recipe we will be using coconut milk and shrimp. You can add any protein you like in the soup. Chicken and pork ribs work really well too. We usually eat this together with the Thai pork omelet.
Ingredients
5-6 Tiger prawns
3 Lemongrass
1 Shallots (Large)
1/2 tomato
7-8 slices of Galangal
2-3 Kaffir lime leaves
6-7 Mushroom
2 tbsp Thai chili paste (I use extra hot, but you can get the medium hot one as well)
1.5 cup coconut milk
2 cup of stock (vegetable, pork or chicken)
2 tbsp fish sauce
2.5 tbsp lime
2-3 stalks of cilantro
1 Green onion
1-2 Thai red chili
Instructions
1. Thinly slice shallots, cut lemongrass into 1.5″ long pieces and pound it a little bit, roughly chop up tomatoes, crunch up some kaffir lime leaves, cut up galangal into 1/8 of an inch thick slices, quarter up some mushroom. Clean, peel and devein the shrimps.
2. In a medium pot over medium high heat drizzle in some oil and stir fry shallot, lemon grass, galangal until shallot is starting to turn brown. Next, add tomato and stock.
3. When the soup starts to boil, add in mushroom and turn down the heat.
4. Add coconut milk, Thai chili paste and shrimps.
5. Once all the shrimps are cooked, turn off the heat and add in fish sauce, lime juice and Thai red chili. We want to add in lime juice after the heat is off so that the soup doesn’t turn bitter. This step is crucial and important not to miss.
6. Add in minced cilantro and green onion (cut into 1 inch)
7. Serve warm with Thai Jasmine Rice
